we need to get an emerging nations tournament going in the next world cup as we did in times past. putting these teams straight into a full WC would just mean tonkings and a lot of players with dubious connections playing which won't grow the game. you could play the games as curtain raisers or as stand alone/double headers and make all tickets a fiver, give some to schools and RL clubs and (shock horror) actually do a bit of promotion for it. of course if we do this in 2021 this would also be an ideal comp for a canadian team to enter ahead of the north america world cup. germany, canada, ukraine, russia, south africa, spain, cooks could all play.

There are four different groups in different states working independently, apparently they didn't know each other existed until fairly recently. As for how many teams and what level of activity each of them have, I don't know because I don't speak Portuguese.

King Street Cat wrote:

Some might look at this as being harsh but I think it's fair. When are the Rugby League going to stop persisting with this fantasy expansion. If it hasn't worked by now, it never will! I'm all for reaching out to a wider audience with our game but not at the expense of historical clubs in the homelands.

What I find ridiculous is countries standing up with National teams when there is minimal domestic competition in existence in that country.

National representation should be the aspirational pinnacle for domestic competitors, not a replacement for the domestic game.

There would be similar domestic activity in most of these nations to Tonga, do you think Tonga don't deserve to have a team? Nonsensical viewpoint.

As for there only being a handful of pro teams after 100 years I agree, but why is that the fault of people trying to develop the sport now? Maybe if someone had done this 50 years ago there would be pro teams in other places.

King Street Cat wrote:

Some might look at this as being harsh but I think it's fair. When are the Rugby League going to stop persisting with this fantasy expansion. If it hasn't worked by now, it never will! I'm all for reaching out to a wider audience with our game but not at the expense of historical clubs in the homelands.

There are four different groups in different states working independently, apparently they didn't know each other existed until fairly recently. As for how many teams and what level of activity each of them have, I don't know because I don't speak Portuguese.

About ten years ago there were some very promising developments coming from Cuba. Much of it was due to the work and enthusiasm of Phil Melling. At the time there would appear to have been little interest shown by the Rugby League authorities and sadly Phil shortly after passed away. He was someone who was well respected in his home town of Wigan and later in South Wales where he had gone to live.

[b]Visit //www.geofflee.net for details of my novels 'One Winter', 'One Spring', 'One Summer' 'One Autumn' and 'Two Seasons'. All five feature Rugby League against a humourous Lancashire/Yorkshire background and are inspired by the old saying about work: "They could write a book about this place. It would be a best seller."[/b]

Wasn't there a big push a few years ago with Jamaica, Russia and South Africa having developing international RL teams, none of which are at the RLWC now.

It took me three minutes to find the relative Facebook and websites of the three nations mentioned...all showing fantastic local development ... also check out the 2017 Wikipedia for World Cup qualifying .. you will see all three were involved in the qualifying competition

You might want to also check out the Balkan Superleague competition run by the entrepreneurial Serbians ... which is perhaps the most exciting grass roots development currently in the game!

About ten years ago there were some very promising developments coming from Cuba. Much of it was due to the work and enthusiasm of Phil Melling. At the time there would appear to have been little interest shown by the Rugby League authorities and sadly Phil shortly after passed away. He was someone who was well respected in his home town of Wigan and later in South Wales where he had gone to live.

I'm aware of Phil Melling, he was a good guy. But not sure where you've got the info from regarding Cuba as I don't ever remember any mention of there being any type of RL presence there.

King Street Cat wrote:

Some might look at this as being harsh but I think it's fair. When are the Rugby League going to stop persisting with this fantasy expansion. If it hasn't worked by now, it never will! I'm all for reaching out to a wider audience with our game but not at the expense of historical clubs in the homelands.

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